| The smell of breakfast tickled her nose before she opened the door. “Tess- it’s me!” Maria called out as she dropped her stuff on the floor in a big messy pile. Her attention was drawn to the yapping from the dirty mop that was running towards her. “Well, hello to you too!” Maria bent down and picked up the long hair pooch. She was making kissing noises when Tess walked in on them. “Can’t find a man, you have to kiss your dog?” Tess winked then gave Maria a wicked grin. Maria answered with her “whatever” face. Tess giggled at how predictable Maria has gotten. They’d been friends for a very long time, went to school together and had been roommates ever since. When Tess and Kyle got together, Maria was a little skeptical, but it worked out great. Tess was like a sister she never had, so they had a very long history of jabbing each other at every opportunity. “Want some breakfast?” Tess asked as she entered the small kitchen. “Is it fattening?” “Belgian waffles, whip cream, fresh strawberries and your choice of sausage or beacon.” “Yummy! Where’s my plate? Wait- give me 10. I need to walk Cookie first.” The little dog was in heaven as Maria scratched her behind her ears. “You’d better. That thing is a menace! When I got home, she was so excited that the peed on the floor!” Tess gave Cookie a hard stare. “Ah, poor baby!” Maria held Cookie closer to her face as she spoke to it. “I’m sorry I didn’t come home last night.” Cookie was happily licking away as Maria was making apologies for her absence. “ ‘Poor baby’ my ass! What about me?” Tess asked and waved her hand for a dramatic flare. “Yeah, where were you last night?” Tess re-stirred the batter and poured it into the waffle iron. “Oh- I spent the night at Michael’s.” “What?” Maria winced at the question. “I’ll tell you all about last night when I get back. K? Bye!” Maria hurried out the door before Tess could ask her any more questions. She quickly descended the stairs with Cookie right behind her. That was a close call. But Maria had nothing to worry about, she just spent a night over at Michael’s apartment; she spent a night at a friends. Maria found a bench under a nice shady tree and sat down as she waited for Cookie to do her business. She stared into the distance as Cookie played along the tall grass, pouncing and rolling in it. She shook her head to break out of the trance then rubbed her face with her palm in disbelief. An embarrassed giggle escaped her throat as the thoughts of last night ran through her head. She really didn’t know how it happened. All of them were just hanging out and listening to the live band and the next thing she was in Michael's apartment with his tongue down her throat. The whole night was a blur. Her stomach went queasy at the thought of Michael's hands on her and how his kisses turned from soft to fierce and back again. She didn’t want a ‘relationship’ with him, she lost that thought a long time ago and things were great between them and she didn’t want to @#%$ that up again. Maria didn’t know what possessed her this morning in his apartment. She was hoping that he would have disappeared when she didn’t get out from under the covers. She’d hoped he never even noticed she was there so she could have left his apartment, but the idiot had to spoil all her plans and sit on her, not like she wasn’t sore enough. But seeing how freaked out he was at the whole situation, she had to do something to calm him down, or calm her down. She was freaking out herself and a little hurt that he didn’t remember anything from last night. For someone who was too drunk to remember, he had been really good! Maria started to fan herself at the thought of it. It was hot! She kind of wished they could do a repeat when he was sober, maybe he might even be better. She covered her face in embarrassment at the thought. Fantasies were healthy for the soul. * “That was a long 10 minutes.” Tess was sitting in front of the TV, flipping through the channels. “Yeah, Cook was having too much fun rolling around in the grass.” Maria went over to join Tess on the couch then took the remote away from her. Maria settled on Saturday morning cartoons, they brought back so many good childhood memories. Tess just rolled her eyes; some things never change. “So what’s this ‘THING’ with you and Michael?” Maria tried to look uninterested as she watched the TV. “What do you mean by ‘THING’? There isn’t a ‘THING’.” “Maria- he doesn’t just let anybody stay over unless it’s someone he’s boffing,” Tess said with a giggle. Maria looked down at her little pup; Cookie had situated herself on Maria’s feet and had fallen asleep. “We are talking about Michael Guerin here. Nothing happened,” she said matter of factly. “He was drunk and I took him home. Since it was a few blocks away from the club. I was too tired to drive home so I slept there,” she answered; hoping that the explanation was satisfactory. Maria picked Cookie up and placed her on her lap. “So nothing happened.” Tess waited for Maria's answer. She gave Maria a once over, but was satisfied with the shacking of her head. “You know that thing is so spoiled. If she wasn’t waiting for you at the door, she was on your bed.” Tess rolled her eyes in disgust at the attention Cookie got. “So do you want your breakfast? “Oh yes! I’m starving!” “Hey, what’s up with your clothes?” Tess commented as she looked at what Maria was wearing. A T-shirt that was two sizes too big and some weird looking skirt that was way too plain for Maria’s style. She got up and headed to the kitchen. “Didn’t want to wear old smelly clothes. I hate the smell of cigarettes.” Maria cut off a piece of her waffle, making sure that she had enough whip cream on it. Out of habit, she looked down to see Cookie was sitting still waiting for her share. “Borrowed them from Michael. I think it belonged to one of Michael’s girls. Who knows?” “So how was it like in there? As long as we know him, none of us got to see his new apartment” Tess was getting excited with each question. Michael had always been her boyfriend’s friend and she knew she was tolerated because of her relationship with Kyle and Maria. She knew very little about him since he seemed to like to keep his distance from people. They just never really got to know each other, plus she was the last one into their group and by that time he was already set in his ways. “Did you get to see any of his work? His apartment smells doesn’t it? He’s messy right? With all the food laid around and fungus growing crawling out of the trash can.” Tess was having a ball commenting and asking questions. “Whoa, whoa… whoa. One question at a time. To tell you the truth, I was too tired to even notice anything. I woke up when he sat on me!” Tess’ eyebrow raised in curiosity at Maria’s last statement. “Tess, can you get me that hair tie?” Maria pointed to the counter behind Tess. She pulled her hair back in a high ponytail. Her long blonde hair was getting caught in the whipped cream. “It was messy, but I didn’t see anything else,” Maria said with a mouthful, she didn’t know she was so hungry. “So was the band good?” Tess popped a strawberry in her mouth. “They were so-so, but the drinks were cheap, so that was all that mattered.” Maria looked over to Tess to see her yawning. “You better go to bed. I know you just got in from work. I’ll take a nap before I get ready for work.” Tess let another yawn escape her. She got up and started walking towards her bedroom then turned around. “Hey Ria, say hi to Doctor Davis for me,” Tess teased with a smile. “Hey what’s that thing on the back of your neck?” * Michael threw down the brush. Looking at the mess he made, he picked up it up and whipped the paint off before it caked on the drop cloth. He lifted the paintbrush, ready to start painting, and then threw it down again. Frustrated he finally got up and walked down the stairs for the third time. He went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, peered inside then closed the door. The started to pick up his clothing off of the floor but than dropped them on the couch. Michael walked into the kitchen again and opened the refrigerator door, nothing, so he closed it and went back up the stairs. Everything was a mess upstairs. His clean canvases were not nicely stacked against the far wall, his brushes were not neatly placed in their cans, paint was splattered everywhere and this painting changed from controlled lines to something erratic. Michael walked toward the painting and was ready to sit down and work on it again, but decided to go sit on the couch opposite of his paintings. He looked at the painting he had been working on. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. The painting started out as an abstract landscape of the desert, serene and peaceful, but it turned twisted with the dark contrasting colors. He really couldn’t work on landscapes anymore, it didn’t feel right. After staring at the painting too long, Michael rubbed his eyes. He didn't really understand what’s going on. Why is he like this? It must be the hang over from last night and his lack of sleep, his body felt exhausted for some reason. He usually never woke up before 10 on Saturdays. It was his lazy day. Michael finally decided to go downstairs for a much needed nap. * A hand hit the snooze button of the alarm clock on the floor, but the annoying ring wouldn’t stop. Reaching aimlessly around, Michael finally picked up the phone and answered, “I’m asleep.” He was about to hang up the phone when someone yelled on the other line. “Get your lazy ass up!” “Mom?” “Do I sound like your mother Guerin?” “Dad?” Michael heard a grunt from the other side of the line as he rolled on his back. “Yeah, what do you want Kyle?” Michael rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his fingers. “Man, you’re one lazy mother! It’s 2 o’clock! Wake up!” “What do you want?” “Ok, Ok- You are such a grouch when you wake up! Anyways, I have to cancel tonight. Tess is off this weekend and we are going out of town.” “You’re so whipped.” “And it feels gooooood-” Kyle said with a laugh. “Dog-” “You’re just jealous-” “Yeah, sure-” “Anyways, look after Maria for me?” “Your sister is not a child. I am not her baby sitter,” Michael said flatly. “True, but return the favor man. She looked after your drunken ass last night, just check up on her.” Michael stomach went queasy as Kyle mentioned last night and Maria in the same sentence. He got off the bed and started walking around with the cordless in hand, trying to settle his stomach. “Fine, I’ll check up on the brat.” Michael tried to hold his voice steady. He only agreed so he could get Kyle off the phone. “Thanks man! Relay the 411 to Max for me. Later!” Kyle hung up before Michael got the chance to protest. Michael looked at the alarm clock on the floor. It would be a while before he had to meet up with Max. He half wanted to go and half didn’t. It was their usual Saturday basketball game, but three on three would be difficult without the third person. Usually, Michael was never this indecisive, but he was off today. Tossing the phone on the far end bed, Michael jumped into his bed, faced down, hugging his pillow. Nuzzling his face in the pillow, the light sent of lavender that lingered there in his nose. It all came to him. At first he thought it was just a dream, a bad nightmare, but it was all true. He recalled how soft her skin felt next to his as they were matted against each other on the wall. His eyes rolled back at the thoughts of her hand grasping him hard and stoking him, making him more aroused. Michael tried to shake the images of her on top of him, but it wasn’t working. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he was too wired to think of sleep now. He really needed to do was to talk to her, get it out in the open so things wouldn't be weird between them. He should have done it this morning, but he had been in shock and Maria had left before he could think straight. Yes he needed to talk to her. Michael reached over and found his cordless and started to dial. TBC |
| Part 2 |
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